Central Floridians are mounting a campaign perhaps unprecedented in the area's history against crack cocaine, the highly addictive drug that is overwhelming society's efforts to contain it.

From grade schools to police departments to rehabilitation centers, the war is heating up as parents see their children turn to crime to support a stranglehold habit.

Police say crack is driving its addicts to robbery, murder and suicide to replenish supplies or to end the craving.

Police, students, parents and educators in Central Florida are fighting back in many ways, including seminars, drug-sniffing dogs, reverse drug buys, tougher school discipline and teenage ''say no'' clubs.

So grave is the crack menace, said Chevon Baccus, spokesman for Brevard County schools, that administrators consider anti-drug programs ''just as important as any other area of the curriculum because we're dealing with lives -- it's not an extra.''

A pioneer in the war is Lake Mary High School in Seminole County, which has instituted a program centered on a controversial anti-drug pledge by athletes and members of student clubs.

Students will be asked to sign the pledge later this month. Failure to do so could mean suspension from the team or club.

They would pledge to abstain from alcohol or drugs, both on campus and off, and to submit to testing and treatment if they are suspected users.

The school board has given tentative approval to the plan, with a final vote scheduled for October. The American Civil Liberties Union says it will sue the board on grounds it is violating students' rights.

Lake Mary High isn't stopping there. It is taking other steps such as training coaches to detect drug use and holding family counseling sessions.

A new group, Sanford Citizens Against Drugs, working with the city police and recreation departments, has held three rallies for parents and students and is offering counseling to addicts.

Families Together of Longwood is organizing a Teens Together group as part of an educational campaign against drug and alcohol abuse.

The teenagers will hold weekly support meetings to head off problems rather than rely on adults and psychologists to solve them after they occur.

Teens Together will sponsor video and educational programs on drug awareness in all Seminole County high schools.

Families Together has printed 5,000 brochures on the symptoms and consequences of smoking crack. They will be distributed to the county's high school students and to families in need.

''If this brochure saves one person or family the agony and heartache caused by crack abuse, it will have served its purpose,'' said Barbara Dean, president of Families Together.

In Orlando, police began a series of sting operations two months ago in which they pose as street-level crack dealers and make mass arrests of their would-be customers.

Undercover agents for most police departments have posed as sellers for several years -- but as large-quantity peddlers in an attempt to nail high- level dealers.

Police hope the periodic stings will send buyers elsewhere to avoid the danger of dealing with an agent if they try it in Orlando.

The department has staged three stings -- one at an apartment complex at 826 west Washington St. and two at the Lafayette Square Apartments in the 2800 block of west L.B. McLeod Road. Both are well-known drug hot spots.

''What we're trying to do is dry up these open, supermarket-type locations where people drive up and buy their crack,'' Lt. Dave Smith said. ''We arrested something like 35 sellers in the couple months before we started this at 826 West Washington, and it didn't dry up one bit.''

Police got some hope Thursday that the stings may be working. During four hours at Lafayette Square, they arrested three people. Three weeks ago, they arrested 17 people at the same complex.

''It's a little disappointing to gear up then go out there and sit around,'' Smith said. ''But the bottom line is that we're trying to get rid of that traffic, so I look at what happened as more of a success than a failure.''

Police Chief Fred Walsh has grown so convinced that the stings are working that he has ordered one every two weeks. And the Orange County Sheriff's Office will start doing the same ''within a matter of days,'' a sheriff's spokesman said Friday.

''If I could do one of these every day of the week, I would,'' Walsh said. ''We would like a person to be scared to death to buy crack cocaine. If we can shut down the buyers, we are also going to shut down the sellers and the sellers are going to go somewhere else. That's the best I can hope to do.''

Although the stings are legal, some defense attorneys contend they could lead to entrapment. Orlando police say they reviewed guidelines with prosecutors to avoid lawsuits.

Police view the stings as only a short-term solution. They agree that only education and stiffer prison terms for dealers will work in the long run.

Law enforcement are conducting standard awareness programs in Orange County schools.